The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) claims it is unconcerned by the United Kingdom’s decision to place Ghana among the 54 countries that should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers.
The Association claims that the UK’s decision will simply deter healthcare professionals from using mass recruiting firms, but people still have the choice to look for jobs elsewhere.
The UK government made the revelation in its updated code of practice for hiring health and social care workers abroad, which was posted on the NHS Employers website.
When actively seeking health or social care personnel, the Code of Practice for International Recruitment states that some developing nations including Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Cote d’Ivoire shouldn’t be sought.
Read Also: shatta wale has apologized for insulting my mum but i wont forgive and forget andy dosty
According to a press release on the NHS website, the listed nations have a UHC Service Coverage Index below 50 and a doctor, nurse, and midwife density below the global median (48.6 per 10,000 population).
Dr. Frank Serebour, President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), urged the government to start using creative strategies to keep medical professionals in the nation in an interview with Citi News.
“There are still countries that have not red-listed, you can still move to the United States, you can go to Canada and the other countries so for me this doesn’t really change much. I think the pull factors are still there, people can be motivated to move out there and ply their trade. “We should be putting our house in order to ensure that we are putting in the right measures to attract and retain our health professionals, so I don’t think this changes anything.”
The countries placed on the red list of ‘No active recruitment’ under the code are Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia.
The rest are Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Federated States of Micronesia, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Republic of Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
SOURCE: CITINEWS
